Understanding museum activity to contribute to the design of tools for cultural mediation: New dimensions of activity?

Abstract

Understanding activity in situations of cultural mediation is a promising way to contribute both to the transformation of mediation situations and to advance the field of ergonomics. In the context of the project Labex Arts-H2H, we examine the activity of cultural mediation. In this article, our objective is to examine to what extent activity models reveal new dimensions of activity and how working with museums leads us to question the existing models. Two activity models are mobilized: MARO, which looks at the potential activity of a capable visitor (Bationo-Tillon, 2013); and NAM that examines the cycle of creative and narrative activity (Decortis, 2013). In the first part of this paper, we describe the development of these two models and their theoretical bases. We then describe our methodology and report the results of using these two models to map a single situation of cultural mediation (museum visit by adolescents followed by a creative workshop). This paper concludes with prospects for further research in these areas.